CASE STUDY

2. Is HubSpot finding and serving the right set of

customer? Given its position as a start-up
company, should it widen its focus to serve any
customer that comes its way? Or narrow their
target, by focusing exclusively on either Owner
Ollies or Marketer Marys, or by focusing
exclusively on either B2B or B2C customers?
Yes, Hubspot is finding and serving the right set of customers. The
focused effort has led to accelerated growth and a satisfied customer
base. However, the company needs to focus on churn-out rates and
training customers on proper utilization of offered tools.

4.0% churn-out rate is very high for a startup business as most

businesses focus on steady growth, which is bolstered by a loyal
customer base. By focusing efforts on plugging this leak, the company
can generate additional revenue and taking it as a case study could
help in understanding the reasons why clients leave and how they
could be retained. Similarly, customers who complained for
“ineffectiveness” of Hubspot tools shall be convinced by objective data
that they are under-utilizing the tool, as a result getting
underperformance.

Since the needs of Ollies and Marys are different; therefore, the
company has different packages for them (refer to Exhibit 7 of the
case). However, the customer base targeted by Hubspot’s clients is
either businesses (B2B) or end-users (B2C). That is where Hubspot
needs to differentiate its services. Both Owner Ollies and Marketer
Marys’ packages shall be sub-divided into B2B and B2C. Such
differentiation shall be based on the logical fact that the churn out rate
of B2C customers is very high (6.0%).

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CASE STUDY

3. HubSpot has begun to differentiate its products

as it has learned more about its customers. Should
it do more? Should its pricing strategy change too?
Does the software-as-a-service (SaaS) pricing
model work for both Marketer Marys and Owner
Ollies, should HubSpot try to immediately capture
more value for either of these customers?

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